


Flying Solo

by justheretobreakthings



Series: Every Month Is Gen-uary When You Believe [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Aromantic Asexual Keith (Voltron), Aromantic Keith (Voltron), Found Family, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Needs a Hug, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 14:05:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18074816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justheretobreakthings/pseuds/justheretobreakthings
Summary: The rehearsal dinner for Curtis and Shiro's wedding dredges up some somber feelings for Keith.





	Flying Solo

“How many of those have you had?” came a chuckling voice behind Keith.

He turned around, the drink in his glass sloshing in his hand, to come face-to-face with Curtis, smiling at him with a raised brow. “A few,” Keith said, shrugging before taking a gulp from the glass. “Coran said there’s barely any alcohol in this, so it’s fine.”

“Coran’s a very poor judge of how much alcohol is considered a lot,” Curtis pointed out. “Plus, are you gonna tell me Shiro was lying when he told me those stories about The Adventures of Keith the Lightweight?”

“Shiro exaggerates,” Keith said. “Hardly my fault this stuff tastes good. At least if I’m gonna get sloshed, better to do it at your rehearsal dinner than at the actual reception, right?”

“Mmm,” Curtis said thoughtfully as he grabbed a glass for himself off of the beverage table. “Ask me again after you throw up all over the table in the middle of the speeches and Shiro gives you a piece of his mind.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “This is glass number three, if you must know. I’m not throwing up anytime soon.”

“That’s a relief,” Curtis said. “Don’t know when we’d find the time to do the dry-cleaning.”

Keith smiled as he took another sip from his glasses and waited for Curtis to finish pouring his own drink. “By the way,” he said as the other turned back around to him. “Thanks again for letting Kosmo be the ring bearer. I promise, tomorrow he’ll walk down the aisle instead of teleporting. He just got excited.”

“It’s fine. Long as the rings get to the chancel, that’s the important part. And it’s hard to say no to Kosmo.”

“Yeah, he’s really mastered those puppy eyes, hasn’t he?” Keith said with a little laugh.

“Well, that, and he always looks like he’s gonna eat you if you deny him anything.”

“Oh please, he’d chew off a couple of fingers at the most.”

Curtis laughed. “You’ve raised quite the dangerous beast, haven’t you?”

“I did my best,” Keith answered. “Hey, speaking of Kosmo, you and Shiro said you’d be up for pet-sitting him again sometime, yeah?”

“Mm-hm,” Curtis said with a nod. “You need a sitter coming up?”

“In about three weeks,” Keith said. “Blade’s gonna be helping build greenhouses over on Suvarmak. Planet’s pretty much all underwater, so it’ll be a hassle to bring him around with us.”

“Three weeks you said?” Keith nodded, and Curtis shook his head and continued, “Won’t be able to do it. Shiro and I will still be in Leshiri for another week more at that point.”

Keith frowned, needing a moment to place the familiar planet name before he remembered. Leshiri - that was the tropical-like planet that Coran had suggested to Shiro for his and Curtis’s honeymoon. “You’ll still be there?” he asked. “I thought Shiro said your honeymoon was gonna be two weeks.”

“Originally, yeah,” Curtis said. “But seeing as Shiro’s retired and I’m on sabbatical anyhow, we figured, why not extend it, go a full month like the honeymoons of the olden days?”

“When did you guys change plans?”

“Couple weeks ago.”

“Oh.” Keith furrowed his brow as he looked down into his near-empty glass. “Shiro, um, didn’t mention it.”

“Well, he’s been pretty busy lately, probably slipped his mind.”

“Yeah…” Keith moved to refill the glass, muttering, “Lot’s been slipping his mind lately.”

“Say something?” Curtis asked.

Keith took a gulp of his drink before turning back around with a smile. “Nah, nothing. Just, uh, you know - agreeing that he’s been busy.”

“Ah, yeah.” Curtis smiled with a little shake of his head. “It’s ironic: Shiro retires so he doesn’t have to deal with as much stress. But since he retired, he’s had the free time to throw himself into wedding planning and honeymoon preparations, and he winds up just as stressed as before. You know, I’m looking forward to the wedding and the honeymoon and all, but I think I’m looking forward even more to when we can finally just be peacefully at home afterward and start our lives, just the two of us.” He took a final sip from his glass. “You coming back to the table?”

“You go, don’t keep the others waiting,” Keith said. “I’m gonna have a bit more to drink.”

“Suit yourself,” Curtis said, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder before taking his leave.

Keith turned back to the beverage table, downing his glass and proceeding to pour himself another. The music playing in the hall and the chatter from the tables were started to get louder, he noticed, and the food spread out across the tables, all courtesy of Hunk’s catering service of course, seemed to be slightly different colors than they were when the rehearsal dinner had started.

Okay, so maybe Curtis had a point when he’d asked if maybe Keith had had too much to drink.

But he couldn’t help himself, not really. He needed something to help get him through the night. What with the crowd and the noise and everyone taking photos and shaking hands and him having to speak in front of everybody. It wasn’t great for his nerves.

In the past, he had relied on Shiro to be his anchor at busy events, whether it was at the Garrison in his school days or at various diplomatic events or coalition parties during their time with Voltron, but now, of course, since Shiro was at the center of attention, he had barely had time to exchange two words with Keith between meeting with all the other guests and spending time with Curtis.

With Curtis…

He didn’t know why it bothered him. There was no logical reason it should. Curtis was nice and fun and made Shiro happy and supported him, so Keith had no problem with Curtis. And Shiro was finally settling down and getting the peaceful and happy future he wanted, and Keith had no problem with that. So he was stumped as to why being at Shiro’s wedding, being his best man, should bother him at all.

He had mentioned this feeling of misgiving a couple of days ago to the others, and Lance had burst out laughing and cried, “Oh my God, Keith, you’re _jealous!_ ”

Keith had simply rolled his eyes and flipped him off. That certainly wasn’t the reason. It wasn’t as if Keith had any desire to marry Shiro himself, far from it. He had never seen the appeal in dating and romance. It was always the most boring part of any movie he watched or book he read, and when he tried to imagine himself going on dates or getting married, either with someone he knew or with some faceless stand-in, it all felt forced and artificial and suffocating and, well, _wrong_.

And that was just dating in general, let alone dating _Shiro_ , which was even harder to imagine, at least without feeling nauseated at the prospect. Shiro was for all intents and purposes his _brother_. You don’t date your brother. You don’t marry your brother. People don’t plan their life and their future around their brother. Or their friend, or their teammate.

People plan their lives around their husbands, wives, spouses, ‘significant others’. The ones they date and love and…

Oh.

So, maybe there was a chance that Keith was jealous. Just… jealous for a different reason.

He was barely aware of the fact that he had gone to the bathroom, and he had no idea how long he had spent in the stall or how long he had spent in front of the sink and mirror afterward. The alcohol probably had something to do with that. All he knew for sure was that he had been lost in his own head for a while, right up to the point when the men’s room door open and Curtis entered. “There you are!” Curtis said the moment he spotted Keith. “Shiro and I were looking everywhere for you! Can’t start the toasts without you. You about finished in here?” He approached Keith, raising his brow. “Uh, Keith? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Keith croaked out. “Just - just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Nothing.”

“Keith…”

“Just… about how… busy Shiro’s been.” Because, God, had he been busy. Busy with the wedding, busy with Curtis. He had barely been in touch with Keith as of late, barely had the time of day for him. And back at the Garrison, before he and Adam had broken off their engagement, the closer they had gotten to their planned wedding day, the busier they had been, the more time they needed together, to themselves…

And last time Keith had decided to pay a surprise visit to Hunk’s restaurant, the center of his food empire where he was the chef himself, because Hunk used to always be happy to get the chance to catch up with him and have Kosmo do his delivery-service act for his patrons, he had discovered that he and Shay had left the day before, off on a romantic getaway together, wouldn’t be back in time to see him and say hello…

And when the Blade had last made a trip back to Earth, he’d made plans with Acxa, to show her some of the landmarks of his time growing up on his home planet and various historical sites and museums, and he still had no idea how he had wound up being stuck spending practically the whole visit with Lance as Veronica occupied Acxa’s every waking moment during the visit with their own special one-on-one time…

It was like they were pairing off, one by one - or, well, two by two - and leaving everything else behind and in the dust. And Keith?

Well, once a lone wolf…

“I’m fine,” he said again, and he was pretty sure that Curtis had been saying something else to him and he’d interrupted, but, whatever. He splashed some water on his face from the sink and sighed. “Think you were right about the drinks.”

“You sure you’re okay to give a toast?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

Curtis frowned. “You know, uh, Shiro told me once that when _you_ say you’re fine, it means the opposite.”

“I _am_ fine. I’m - I’m happy. This is a happy night. For Shiro. I’m just… gonna miss him.”

“What do you mean, miss him? We’re coming back from our honeymoon eventually, you know.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s - it’s - ” His voice hitched and he wiped at his eyes. “It’s just, it - it was me and Shiro for a long time, and now I’m gonna have to - I mean, it’s you and Shiro now, and - and that’s good, it’s good for Shiro, and you, and you guys are a good couple and, um, and you - and I just need to, um, to get used to - ”

“Hey, hey,” Curtis said softly, and suddenly his hands were on Keith’s shoulders and Keith was choking back sobs, because of the stupid alcohol, of course, that was why. “Keith?” Curtis continued. “Is that what’s bothering you? You’re worried that you’ll be, um…”

Left behind? Forgotten? Unneeded? Curtis didn’t say any of those, but Keith still thought them.

“Keith,” he said again, not bothering to finish his current thought. “You - you do know that Shiro marrying me doesn’t mean he loves you any less, don’t you?”

“I’m not a child, Curtis,” Keith mumbled. “You don’t have to talk to me like one.”

“Sorry, I hadn’t meant to. It’s just… Shiro has been busy lately, we both have, but, don’t think for a moment that Shiro doesn’t still love having you around.”

“Mm-hm.”

Curtis sighed. “I can’t make you believe me but, well… you know, Keith, you’ve never gotten to see the way Shiro’s face absolutely lights up when your name pops up on an incoming video call. But it does. Hell, he gets happier to get calls from you than from anyone else. Including me.”

Keith stared at him. “... He does?”

“And you didn’t see him the last time you’d scheduled a visit with us. He was practically giddy the whole morning because it had been so long since he’d seen you. He wanted so badly to make the visit special that he even tried to cook the whole lunch for us himself.”

Keith frowned quizzically. “I thought Sal delivered lunch to us last time I visited?”

“Well, yes,” Curtis said. “We had to throw away all of Shiro’s attempts at cooking since they ended up all just being crunchy black blobs of tastelessness, but it’s the thought that counts.”

A hiccoughing laugh made its way out of Keith’s throat. “That sounds like his cooking,” he said.

“From how much he talks about you, you’d think he was trying to help me cram for a big test in my Keith Studies class. I think I’ve heard every story about you that exists.” Curtis smiled. “He’s proud of you, you know. And he does love you. I figure he loves me a, uh, a very different way but…” Keith was reminded of Curtis’s hand on his shoulder when he squeezed it. “You know, once our honeymoon’s over, I’ve still got work that I’ll be doing with the Garrison and the Atlas. Shiro’s gonna need someone to be giving him calls and dropping by for surprise visits.”

Keith gave him a trembling smile. “I’ll - I’ll do my best.”

“Attaboy.” Curtis released him and moved to the paper towel dispenser to get Keith a couple of sheets before passing them over. “Here, take a couple minutes. Get your eyes cleaned up. The toasts can wait ‘til you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” Keith said, accepting the towels. He ran one under the stream of cold water in the sink and dabbed it at his eyes. “Oh, uh, Curtis? Just so you know, um… Shiro - Shiro picked a good husband.”

Curtis grinned at him, hand on the door handle. “Thanks, Keith,” he said. “He picked a good best man too.”

**Author's Note:**

> [I tumble.](http://justheretobreakthings.tumblr.com)


End file.
